Book 2: Chapter 56: Gone Huntin (1/2)
Dan stood behind Gregoir's bulky frame as he interviewed Burl Meyers' neighbors. The affable officer held a large yellow pad in one hand and a thick pencil in the other. He smiled encouragingly at the timid old lady who lived across from Meyers, as she recounted seeing a strange man enter and exit the apartment alongside grumpy, lonely Burl. She'd watched through her peephole as the pair carried out half a dozen plastic tubs, that rattled with each step, taking several trips up and down the freight elevator before finally leaving.
”I'm just happy that Burl found a friend,” she confided to Gregoir. Her voice lowered conspiratorially. ”He was always a bit of a loner, never talked to no one. It's good to see him branching out finally.”
Her brow furrowed after she finished her rambling tale.
”What was it you said happened to him?”
Gregoir beamed at her. ”Nothing yet, ma'am. We're simply investigating an irregularity at his job, and were hoping to interview him. Did you speak to him before he left? Or the gentleman beside him?”
”No, no, they seemed like they were in a hurry,” she replied. ”I didn't want to interrupt. An old lady like me has a tendency to ramble, I know. The poor boy didn't need me keeping him from whatever it was that needed doing.” She paused, then blinked. ”Is Burl moving away?”
”I really couldn't say,” Gregoir replied carefully. ”I'm hopeful you'll be seeing him again soon.”
He reached into the pocket of his vest, and pulled out a folded up picture. Gregoir carefully opened the photo, and showed his witness a picture of Bartholomew's 'disguised' face, a still frame taken from the Pearson's surveillance video.
”Do you recognize this man?” Gregoir asked gently. ”Was he with Mr. Meyers?”
The witness fumbled in the breast pocket of her frilly smock and pulled out a pair of glasses older than Dan. She held them up to her face, not bothering to unfold the temples, and peered at the picture. After a moment, her face lit up in recognition.
”That's him! That's the young man who was helping Burl move those boxes!” She glanced closer. ”He looked a little less tense, though. He was much more relaxed.”
Gregoir scribbled something onto his pad.
”And when did you see all of this?” he queried, readying his pencil.
”Oh it must have been a few days ago, now,” the old lady replied. ”It was fairly early in the morning, too. The only reason I was even awake is because my joints were giving me trouble, I don't think anyone else was awake. They were honestly very quiet, but my ears haven't gone the way of my eyes quite yet. I thought that very considerate of them.” She shook her head. ”Kids these days, no respect for others while they move about, with the clanging and the banging and the knocking into walls and the—”
”Yes, indeed, they are menaces,” Gregoir interrupted with a brilliant smile. He looked down at her, every inch of him radiating trustworthiness. ”Would you be willing to speak before a judge?”
They left a few minutes later, Gregoir reading over his notes as they walked.
”Always speak to the neighbors,” he told Daniel. ”There's almost always a nosey one. You never know when you'll get lucky.”
Dan snorted, then asked, ”Where to now?”
Gregoir scratched his chin. ”Now I try and subpoena Mr. Meyers bank records. Any transactions between the night of his abduction and now are suspect. Bartholomew might be confident in using traceable transactions given that Mr. Meyers appears, on the surface at least, to be cooperating with him. In reality, I imagine that he dosed the man with whatever he gave young Waylon.”
”Any word on what that is?” Dan asked.
Gregoir shook his head. ”In truth, I have a few worrying theories about it. It's clearly a homemade substance, much like the destructive fog that was released during his attempt to capture you. He is clearly not your garden variety lunatic.”
”Yeah, he's smart,” Dan pointed out. ”You know, in a crazy kind of way.”
”It's more than that,” Gregoir said, shaking his head. ”His behavior, his mania, his actions... The kidnapping attempt, almost a year ago? He seemed confident that he could replicate an APD upgrade pattern given time and resources. One does not simply reverse engineer an upgrade, Daniel. It's possible, certainly, but not something just anyone could do.”
”Ok?” Dan said slowly. ”So you think he's, what, some kind of former super scientist?”
”I'm concerned that he might be a Genius,” Gregoir stated solemnly.
Dan stopped in his tracks. ”How is that possible? He can turn parts of himself into fog. That's clearly some kind of cosmic bullshit. You can't have two upgrades, Gregoir.”
Gregoir frowned. ”I have never encountered a Genius before, only heard the stories. There are very few limits to what they were capable of accomplishing when focused on a specific goal. Given his seeming obsession with powers, I wonder if he found a way to give himself another one. Or, perhaps, mimic the effects of one through some kind of mad science?”
The latter seemed more likely, given what Dan knew about the nature of powers. A power could evolve in its expression and methodology, Dan's veil was proof of that, but its intrinsic nature could not change. The ability to control fire would never become the ability to have perfect balance. The two concepts were completely disparate, irreconcilable. Even a madman should not be able to twist his power in such wildly different directions.
Changing one's physical composition into something else seemed like something a Genius focusing on powers, or even biology, could accomplish. Hell, Marcus might have been able to pull it off. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility. Andros Bartholomew might very well be a Genius. That thought came with its own set of horrific implications.
”How long did a Genius' mind usually last before they went full tilt crazy?” Daniel asked slowly.
”It differed greatly,” Gregoir replied. ”Some went mad within a year, the most dedicated of them lasted a decade or more.”
Dan thought back to when Anastasia had first approached him about Andros Bartholomew. She'd mentioned that he was a known affiliate of the People, but hadn't mentioned his abilities. Dan was certain that if Bartholomew was a Genius, and Anastasia had known about it, she would've spared no expense in hunting him down. A Genius was that threatening, that dangerous, that unstable.
”I was under the impression that the Genius upgrade had been destroyed,” Dan pointed out.
”That is supposedly the case,” Gregoir agreed.
It made Dan think that this was a recent occurrence, within the last few years at most. It made Dan think that the People had found, or built, a new Genius pattern, and were testing it out with a few isolated mad scientists. One could not control a Genius in the grips of his mania, one could only point them in a direction. They sent Bartholomew to Austin and let him work, but he was captured.
”Coldeyes started a war to free Bartholomew from the feds,” Dan recounted. ”Someone, presumably the People, helped him do it.”
”An awfully large commitment to save a single lunatic, no?” Gregoir asked grimly.
”Wouldn't the feds have noticed this?” Dan asked, searching for a hole in the theory. ”Surely they have some way to detect a Genius?”